Post by Bogatan on Jul 22, 2010 11:03:56 GMT
Thanks to someone at my library doing a pretty good job of purchasing new TF trades as they are released I finally entered the world of the Ongoing.
First impressions,
Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The art hurts, it hurts so much. I could just about live with it except for two elements both of which are covered in the issue threads that I'm now catching up on, but I'll repeat now. The faces, wow, dull zombie stares. First reaction was to blame the movie style faces but then I've never had that response to the movie based comics I've read.
Then it came to me, hes copying the dead eyed Universe boxart. Crazy. But not crazy enough, no he must have looked at what he had done and thought "It's missing something? Ahh! I know, goatees all around!"
I could cope with one or the other but both just ruins every page of this comic. But then he goes further and somehow mistakes this gig as a trial run for XMen and so Hotrod already annoying is played as Wolverine. If he ever tried to shoot someone with those claws, they are so bent he'd shoot himself in the face.
Second problem the new designs. WTF is going on with Hot Rod? And Jetfire, they dont remotely resemble anything else in the IDW comics.
Thankfully the writing side is much more palatable. I like the basic concept and taken in its own self contained bubble is good stuff. But its not in its own bubble. LSOTW is happening and just on one prison planet are more transformers than appear to be on the whole of Earth. The Wreckers are still operating as are the supporting groups mentioned in the profiles. The war itself might have ground to a directionless stop but transformers who were the soldiers in those armies still exist and apparently the TFs on Earth are still in communication with them enough that Prowl is able to arrange The Wreckers mission.
Non of which fits the idea of a handful of Autobots hiding in a cave acting like the last of their race. Primes simply making them carry out a mission thats gone completely tits up. Then Prime decided he's leading the mission wrong so steps aside leaving Bumblebee to pick up the pieces, but only on Earth, but it keeps reading like Bumblebee is leader of all Autobots everywhere. Everything prior to AHM and some of that even seems based on a real world functioning government built around Primes role, how that survived AHM and then Primes surrender to Humans seems like the big issue and a least once Ultra Magnus arrives there is some suggestion of that stuff.
Of course the magnus that arrives is a completely different Magnus to the one in LSOTWs maybe his grumpy even more by the book twin. Actually hes filling the role left vacant by Prowl, when he decided to quit being Prowl accept when the plots required someone to act vaguely authoritive. I like this Magnus but he seems very unflexible unlike LSOTW, maybe hes there to show just how much like unsupervised children the rest of the Autobots are acting like. He certainly doesn't view their childish disagreements as serious. So in that respect he probably does a good job of tying the ongoing to the wider IDW verse, but at the expense of making all the gritty post war story seem very silly.
There seemed to be quite a bit of annoyance at not knowing why certain things were happening like Ultra Magnus showing up, maybe that was annoying in single issues but in trade its explained by the end and sort of makes sense, unless you remember that the Autobots are fighting a war and if Magnus is called in and arrests someone everytime one of them dies he would be the busiest bot in the galaxy. It would explain the number of autobots on Garrus 9, but not how Optimus Prime has avoided sharing a cell with Grimlock.
Prowl isn't explained at all here which is annoying. Not because it isn't explained, but because there is nothing in the story to suggest anyone has noticed a change. Just a line wondering why Prowl isnt quoting directives or trying to assume control after Prime quits (seriously Cliffjumper wants to be boss but Prowl apparently not only doesn't want the job he also has no interest in who does get it?) would tell us the readers that yes the writer and the characters are aware Prowl is different and therefore we can expect to be let in on what happened at some point. We wouldn't then need the editor to come out and tell us its all on purpose.
I must agree with Grahams comment in the thread for issue 3 or 4, that if the internet had been around during Marvel UKs run we probably would have been making similar complaints on a weekly basis but over time most of it came together. And for the most part the first 6 issues do manage to come together except for that whole up there, down here thing. Considering Costa had to clean up the mess AHM left its pretty good I just hope by the end of the first year everything is hanging together a bit more comfortably.
Andy
First impressions,
Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The art hurts, it hurts so much. I could just about live with it except for two elements both of which are covered in the issue threads that I'm now catching up on, but I'll repeat now. The faces, wow, dull zombie stares. First reaction was to blame the movie style faces but then I've never had that response to the movie based comics I've read.
Then it came to me, hes copying the dead eyed Universe boxart. Crazy. But not crazy enough, no he must have looked at what he had done and thought "It's missing something? Ahh! I know, goatees all around!"
I could cope with one or the other but both just ruins every page of this comic. But then he goes further and somehow mistakes this gig as a trial run for XMen and so Hotrod already annoying is played as Wolverine. If he ever tried to shoot someone with those claws, they are so bent he'd shoot himself in the face.
Second problem the new designs. WTF is going on with Hot Rod? And Jetfire, they dont remotely resemble anything else in the IDW comics.
Thankfully the writing side is much more palatable. I like the basic concept and taken in its own self contained bubble is good stuff. But its not in its own bubble. LSOTW is happening and just on one prison planet are more transformers than appear to be on the whole of Earth. The Wreckers are still operating as are the supporting groups mentioned in the profiles. The war itself might have ground to a directionless stop but transformers who were the soldiers in those armies still exist and apparently the TFs on Earth are still in communication with them enough that Prowl is able to arrange The Wreckers mission.
Non of which fits the idea of a handful of Autobots hiding in a cave acting like the last of their race. Primes simply making them carry out a mission thats gone completely tits up. Then Prime decided he's leading the mission wrong so steps aside leaving Bumblebee to pick up the pieces, but only on Earth, but it keeps reading like Bumblebee is leader of all Autobots everywhere. Everything prior to AHM and some of that even seems based on a real world functioning government built around Primes role, how that survived AHM and then Primes surrender to Humans seems like the big issue and a least once Ultra Magnus arrives there is some suggestion of that stuff.
Of course the magnus that arrives is a completely different Magnus to the one in LSOTWs maybe his grumpy even more by the book twin. Actually hes filling the role left vacant by Prowl, when he decided to quit being Prowl accept when the plots required someone to act vaguely authoritive. I like this Magnus but he seems very unflexible unlike LSOTW, maybe hes there to show just how much like unsupervised children the rest of the Autobots are acting like. He certainly doesn't view their childish disagreements as serious. So in that respect he probably does a good job of tying the ongoing to the wider IDW verse, but at the expense of making all the gritty post war story seem very silly.
There seemed to be quite a bit of annoyance at not knowing why certain things were happening like Ultra Magnus showing up, maybe that was annoying in single issues but in trade its explained by the end and sort of makes sense, unless you remember that the Autobots are fighting a war and if Magnus is called in and arrests someone everytime one of them dies he would be the busiest bot in the galaxy. It would explain the number of autobots on Garrus 9, but not how Optimus Prime has avoided sharing a cell with Grimlock.
Prowl isn't explained at all here which is annoying. Not because it isn't explained, but because there is nothing in the story to suggest anyone has noticed a change. Just a line wondering why Prowl isnt quoting directives or trying to assume control after Prime quits (seriously Cliffjumper wants to be boss but Prowl apparently not only doesn't want the job he also has no interest in who does get it?) would tell us the readers that yes the writer and the characters are aware Prowl is different and therefore we can expect to be let in on what happened at some point. We wouldn't then need the editor to come out and tell us its all on purpose.
I must agree with Grahams comment in the thread for issue 3 or 4, that if the internet had been around during Marvel UKs run we probably would have been making similar complaints on a weekly basis but over time most of it came together. And for the most part the first 6 issues do manage to come together except for that whole up there, down here thing. Considering Costa had to clean up the mess AHM left its pretty good I just hope by the end of the first year everything is hanging together a bit more comfortably.
Andy
